1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for improving performance in sports; in particular, this apparatus relates to apparatus for improving performance in the sport of volleyball, more particularly, this invention relates to apparatus for serving volleyballs for practice.
2. State of the Art
For decades now various sports have used devices to simulate the actions of the sport to aid the athlete in perfecting his performance during playing the sport in actual competition. One of the best known of such devices is the baseball pitching machine. Varieties of this general type of device exist, and they aide in the development of expertise in hitting the base ball.
Similar devices exist for tennis coaching. The ball is served and the student returns the serve. One such device for volleyball is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,048 issued to Saito et al. It discloses a volleyball practice apparatus having a serving head that propels the ball forward by a pair of rotating wheels. The height is adjusted in this embodiment by raising and lowering the server head which is mounted on a vertical member. The problem with this approach is that the entire apparatus tends to become unstable as the server head is raised higher.
Although it would seem to be a trivial exercise to modify either of the two types of device for volleyball two major difficulties arise. First, volleyballs are physically much larger than either tennis balls or baseballs. Second, for the workout to reliably benefit the student serves, spikes and other returns must be simulated. The problem is that the ball must be served from as high a position as possible to simulate the various activities of the serve. Overcoming those problems has proven to be harder than anticipated.